I can’t understand how this could raise an emotional reaction of any kind?

I understand it. Why? Because it simply looks like a very important message (in your example; 2 of them) or major issues with your account, which need your immediate attention. Maybe something with you credit card, something with you subscription, maybe something with your password.

The problem I have with that (ignoring) is… I trust TR very very much. TR has become some sort of “holy place” for me. If I’m forced to apply my internal “ignoring filters”, TR will loose it’s hard earned trust. And that results in… not being a customer any more. But at the end it doesn’t matter. I’m nobody. And just one of ten thousands.

A colleague of mine had hundreds of unread emails thanks to her receiving hundreds every day. She is quite capable of ignoring them but has run into lots of people who couldn’t cope with there being unread messages just left to sit.

This thread seriously makes me wonder. If people biggest issue us a small red number on the side of screen then shows what an amazing job @nate and team are doing. Hope referrals get as much business your way as possible to secure and improve TR future - you guys deserve any and all success! The podcast is best marketing you can do though!

I’ve got to say I also agree, I’m UK based and more than happy to pay a subscription (not necessarily the case 3-4 years ago.

My one exception is something like the MSOffice suite, the updates aren’t big enough to warrant upgrading all the time (saying that I get a BIG discount through work so may feel differently if I had to pay RRP…)

That was my plan, but I don’t need to hide it, because my cycling friends have stopped cycling and will start again in April… having been faster and stronger than them all this year, I don’t see next year being any different … a few have purchased smart trainers, but probably be a novelty till jan…

Now I have looked at what the red number means I am not too bothered about whether or not it is there.
However it is likely that any genuine alert re your account will be ignored by most users as they will assume it is just a referral warning.